September 28, 2018

King Lear Raging on the Heath: Brett Kavanaugh

In about a week, the data from the FBI investigation of the allegations about Brett Kavanaugh's behavior toward several women will be turned over the U.S. Senate.

However, even if he comes up clean, there are many who wonder if he has the temperament to be a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

His presentation of himself yesterday to the Senate Judiciary Committee mirrored that of William Shakespeare's character King Lear. After a life of myopia, King Lear goes insane on the heath. He cries out that he has been sinned against than sinning.

The difference between King Lear and Kavanaugh is this: Kavanaugh did not even seem to recognize that he had also "sinned," that is, acted in ways in his youth that should trigger shame in the adult he had become.

Instead, Kavanaugh only ranted about how he had been sinned against.

In addition, he was extremely disrespectful to both the women and the men questioning him. Also, as is typical of too many lawyers, he reframed many of the questions, not answering them directly. Some of us recalled how lawyer Bill Clinton played around on national television with the word "is" in relation to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed as a justice for SCOTUS, the hearing stink will stick on him. That will permeate the whole entity.

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